Author and host of the hit OUTDOOR CHANNEL show SHOOTING GALLERY spouts off...

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Meanwhile, Back at the Top of the Food Chain

Admit it...given a choice, we'd all be rooting for the poor South Dakota cougar that got killed b a Connecticut SUV last week. The cat walked 1500 miles only to get whacked by a truck. Better than choking to death on a liberal, I guess. Here's an interesting column in the NYT by David Baron, a Boulderite who wrote the great book, THE BEAST IN THE GARDEN, about our "domestic" wildlife out here in the West:

Still, living with big cats takes some adjustment. As a former New Englander who now lives among Colorado cougars, I no longer hike alone. When I walk my dog in the early morning, I watch the bushes. I have educated myself on what to do if I encounter a cougar. Yell. Throw rocks. Fight back.

Yet in a decade of living here, I have not seen a cougar in the wild. The cats are masters at hiding and generally leave people alone, which means the biggest adjustment to living with cougars is psychological. It is knowing that a creature far more powerful than you could be crouched behind the trash can, around the next tree, under the porch.

Thanks to the South Dakota cat and its incredible journey, residents of the Eastern United States can now experience the fear and thrill that come with living below the top of the food chain. America has grown a bit less tame.

The Secret Hidden Bunker is a ways away from suburban Boulder, both in distance and wildness. The cats are part of the way of life up here. Like Baron, I've never seen one. My favorite stry is from a couple of years ago when I mentioned to my Sweetie to be extra special careful walking Alf the Wonder Beagle because a big cat was in the neighborhood. There were tracks all over the place, including up and down the driveway. Sweetie was skeptical at best, but around midnight that night the cat screamed. If you've never heard a cougar scream, it is a grab a bone and climb a tree primeval experience. My Sweetie sat straight up in bed and said, Oh my God WHAT IS THAT?" I said that would be the top of the food chain. "The top of the food chain is in there front yard!"

I agree with the "Yell. Throw rocks. Fight back" theory of lion protection, My rocks, however, are relatively small and go really really fast.

19 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Also living out in the wilds of Montana, we have them too, frequently. My wife has seen them in the yard, and I have on several occasions. We have had Grizzly removed (now THERE is a predator), the Wolves are around a bit, and there are the Bobcats too (the kittens are cute though). Yes, just a part of life.

When I lived up in Leadville, I was the last guy on the hill on the east side of town. One night the dog woke me up, he was going crazy outside. I got up to let him in, and when I opened the door I heard what was setting him off--a mountain lion a bit higher up was screaming its head off. It does indeed push a button deep in the hindbrain, chilling! I let the dog in, got back in bed, and hid under the covers.

Whilst elk hunting on Mount Baldy in Colorado a couple of decades ago I thought it would be cute to track a cougar in the snow. After a 1/2 mile the tracks led to a large downed tree. I walked the tree and at the end looked for the tracks to restart. Not 5 feet or 10 feet or 15 feet but about 20 feet from where it launced to where it landed. At that point I decided it would be wise to not "hunt" this animal.

Fast forward 20 years to Oklahoma and I've heard them here near home. One day the neighborhood pack of dogs was fighting...I called the boys...that cat was whippin' some dog but.

Lived in Colorado all my life, seen exactly one. Dusk, I was walking a road, it was shadowing me up the hill above the road. Makes for a spooky walk when you can't see it any more... even with a 357 in your hand. -Grizz

I heard a cougar scream while camping out in the eastern Oklahoma hills years ago, it was an unforgettable experience. A year or so ago, a cougar was seen severall times near our Texas ranch. My three year old grandson was walking with me to the mailbox, as we talked about the lion. He asked, "Papa, do you have your pistol?" Yep, I had my pistol. We raise em right down here in Texas!

go back about 45 years, i was an armed security guard at the old jostens jewelry plant in southeastern massachusetts. walking an outside round on the property i heard the dammdest scream, like a dammed soul calling from hell, nothing human. my sidearm magically appeared in my hand, with no memory of drawing it. i never did see what made the scream, and i'm quite happy to not know, but it had to be something bigger than a house cat.

I hunt western NY....my benefactor....err the owner of the land I hunt is a leftist...just to the right of zer0bama...of late, black bears have moved into the area...and when we go up the trail to put up our tree stands and clear brush etc., he always ask if I could please carry my evil sidearm...funny how that works when it is to his advantage....

Maine has them, Mass has them, Quebec has them,and Vermont has them.NH Fish and Game claims there are none in NH, despite photo's, and eyewitness accounts, including from F&G employees.Thing is, if they admit they are here, they have to institute a management program.NH's management program is "they seem to be doing OK with out our meddling".If you are in the woods in NH another thing that will scare the bejeezus out of you is hearing a fishercat scream.Damned souls indeed !Tom B.

There are and always have been cougars in the far reaches of Connecticut. Just ask the Troopers on late night shifts (of which I was one until retirement). They are spotted moving at night very often.

But for some reason known only to them the state DEP to this day denies that they are there even after informal sightings by troopers are reported to their officers and citizen reports are downplayed as the people seeing them are mistaken even after seeing photos and will not comment on why they deny creditable reports.

Years back, we Nutmeggers had an influx of coyotes. They had been gone for decades, and suddenly they had "returned".

And being lazy predators, they didn't waste their energy chasing the multitudes of deer that had been eating our gardens and damaging our cars by running in front of them. They went after farm animals and housepets.

Well, people started asking questions about those mysterious coyotes, and the CT Dept. of Environmental Protection denied importing them. Denied it for years, on a stack of bibles.

Until, eventually they couldn't deny it any more and they confessed that they had in fact re-introduced them into the state.

If you read the carefully-parsed statement issued by the DEP, it isn't hard to see the Clintonesque word games that might be taking place:

we get frequent cayote kill frenzies that will wake up the dead here in coastal maine.. occasional moose in the back yard too... the scariest things we have are the damn ticks!... and they dont scream any warnings and are too small to shoot...

A good friend of mine was staying in Colorado at his dad's cabin and while walking a path on the property they came face to face with a Cougar and he shot it with his .40 S&WIt was not wanting to retreat and seemed very hostile. It pays to carry.

Summer of ’59 as a 12 yr. old, I spent at my Grandparents Ozark farm. Had a RG-10 that a family friend had given me for Christmas and Grandfather had bought me a brick of 22 shorts to practice with. Prince Albert cans were in trouble within 20’. Went off to the creek behind a neighbor’s chicken house one day to fish and boy and young cougar (I knew the difference even then) meet head to head on trail through the Johnson grass. Boy looks at cougar and thinks shoot it. Cougar looks at boy and thinks “too big to be a chicken”. Boy rethinks and decides 22 short isn’t “enough gun” )my rocks were too small and not fast enough). Cougar rethinks and heads off through the grass. We both lived to see another day. Fast forward to 4 years ago, I was deer hunting in the Gila Mountains here in NM. Saw several foxes in the evening and bought a furbearer tag. Had a squeaker call in the truck so “squeaked” for 1 minute every 5 minutes of the last 15 of shooting time. After the 3rd squeak session, I look around and see this face looking at me through the grass in the meadow where I was sitting against a downed tree trunk. Look at it through scope and YEP it was a cougar. Damn, didn’t have a tag. Lifted rifle again to look and it decided it was time to leave. Graceful sight as it bounded away (wet summer had resulted in some high grass). I ranged a cedar bush next to where he had been and it was 27 yds. Had to think about what could have been if I had been constantly blowing on a call. Again both lived to see another day. I have seen them at night and agree that once you hear them scream, you will never forget it.Thaine

The Predators are back. Neighbors reported two coyotes well inside the perimeter in Atlanta a few months ago. They were in a car and slowed down to watch. The two coyotes sat down to watch the car go by. A local vet was quoted in the paper last year: "And missing animals? “I’m suspicious about all those ‘Missing Cat’ signs I see everywhere,” she said. Those cats, Sonnenfield thinks, won’t be found."Charles in Atl

California has seen fit to make the Cougar a protected species, which has reduced its natural reticence about being seen. It has also reduced its natural fear of humans, so the last 16 years have seen as many cougar maulings as from statehood to 1996. California, unlike more enlightened states, makes it hard to carry in cougar country.

Coyotes are in LA, and I agree, those missing cats aren't in some little girl's bedroom with a doll bonnet being compelled to participate in tea parties.